A Change Is gonna... who's making galbi?

I often ponder the change that will come in Korea when the next generation rise to adulthood. Currently - what with Korea's rigid elder-idolization - the word of the old folks is cast iron in Korean society. 30-40 year olds do not have prevailing say here. This country is more or less run by people - mostly men - in their 60's and 70's. These people have no tolerance for certain things. From what I've seen, here are some things that most elderly Koreans cannot tolerate, whether they be a farmer or the president:

- Women smoking in public
- Foreigners speaking on public transportation
- A female waiting until her mid-30's to wed
- Japan, or the admiration thereof
- A wife who does not become a surrogate mother to her husband
- Seeing a foreign man and a Korean (read: Asian) woman that are seemingly a couple
- Anything that deviates from the norm
- Being told that they're wrong, or to stop...

There are no doubt other, less apparent, aspects of life that elderly Koreans cannot handle, but these are the major examples I've witnessed. I believe the expectations of these people are significant only because they are on the decline.

It is my belief that as the old guard dies out, so too will their beliefs. This is hardly a revolutionary idea. Obviously all cultures change as younger generations come to power. But few countries I've ever visited or read about are in a position to have as big an overhaul as I believe Korea will. Young Koreans are a people who grew up in a vastly different world than their parents. They know almost nothing of war, they know almost nothing of agricultural labor, they are actively learning English at a furious clip, and they are fully engaged in the process of globalization. In short, the vast majority of young Koreans are progressive in a way that their parents couldn't even process. They [the youth] probably know this, and thus, their parents don't actually get to see how progressive they actually are. It's all hidden from them.

The generation gap in Korea is astounding. Make no mistake about it, regardless of what happens with its northern brethren, Korea will be a country transformed by 2030. I know that sounds like a ways away, but I guarantee you nobody my age ever realized how quickly we'd be knocking on the doorstep of 2010. Christ, that date still sounds like a futuristic, unimaginable age to me.
This is not to say that Korea will become America lite - it won't (that's solely a role reserved for Canada... just kidding, eh). Koreans will never forego a Kimchi diet in favor of one weighed down with burgers and fries. Just in the same way that Koreans will never totally think it's okay to, say, get married twice before they die. These are both western past times, and I believe they will always be so. The change in Korea will seem minor to us Westerners, and will probably go unnoticed. It will most likely be a mass sense that there's no longer a need to hide. For example, interracial couples will not be too intimidated to hold hands. Female smokers will not feel confined to lavatories. Unhappy couples will not dread the social stigma of a divorce (only one divorce). And maybe, just maybe, a few gay Koreans will not feel trapped within special neighborhoods in Seoul - though that's a topic for a whole other discussion.

Korea will progress with the new generation, because Koreans are generally kind hearted people who want others to feel happy. Just like kimchi and soju, the sense of a shared identity will never fully leave Korea. People here want all Koreans to feel joy, not just some of them. So when the open minds of the younger generation take the reigns, I think you will see those minds expand the scope of what is acceptable here. Though, in my opinion, the future doesn't bring a better Korea or a worse Korea; it simply brings the new Korea.